Shakespeare, In Fact

by Matus, Irvin Leigh; Mann, Thomas

• ISBN13: 9780486490274
• ISBN10: 0486490270
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-11-21
• Publisher: Dover Publications

Summary

Filled with reproductions of Elizabethan engravings, manuscript pages, and other illustrations, this virtuoso exploration of Shakespeare's life was hailed by The Shakespeare Newsletteras "the definitive study of the controversy" surrounding the authorship of the Bard's plays. Publishers Weeklydeclared, "this erudite tome dismantles the arguments claiming that someone other than Shakespeare wrote his plays."

Author Biography

Irvin Leigh Matus (1941–2011) was a visiting scholar at Iona College and lectured at the Library of Congress and George Mason University. In addition to another book on Shakespeare, he wrote about the Bard for Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Magazine, the Times Literary Supplement, and other periodicals.

Thomas Mann, author of the Introduction, is a reference librarian at the Library of Congress.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Dover Edition	p. 1
Author's Preface	p. 9
In the Court of Public Opinion	p. 13
Is It Important?
Allusion and Illusion
This Book and Its Sources
Shakespeare of Stratford, His Record and Remains	p. 24
Shakespeare-or "Shakspere"?
Hyphenated Shakespeare
Literacy and the Shakespeares
The Stratford Grammar School
Shakespeare: The Heel, and His "AchillesÆ Heel"
Shakespeare's Autograph
The Survival of Manuscripts
On the Paper Trail of the Player and the Playwright	p. 52
The Records of the Player
The Lord Chamberlain's Man
The King's Man
Early Notices of the Playwright
The "Missing" Manuscripts
Author's Rights and "True Originall Copies"
Believe as You List
Afterwords: "Shakespeare ye Player by Garter"
"A Bend between Two Cotizes"
The Publication of Shakespeare's Plays	p. 83
The Worshipful Company of Stationers
The Acting Companies and Publication
Give Them No Quarto
The Publication History of the Chamberlain's Men's Plays
From Sir George Buck to the First Folio
Pembroke and the 1619 Quartos
Heminges and Condell versus the Noble Brethren
The Publication History of the King's Men
Questions about the Writing of the Plays	p. 127
Shakespeare, the Sole Begetter?
The Unkindest Cuts
"Worth the Audience of Kings"
Afterwords: "Hence Broker-Lackey"
The Dating of Shakespeare's Plays	p. 145
The Problem of Cairncross
A Tale of Two-or Three-Lears
The Winter's Tale and Tales of The Tempest
Henry VIII and the Problem of John Fletcher
Questions for a Chronology
Shakespeare's Reputation in the Seventeenth Century	p. 167
The Reputation of the Theater in Shakespeare's Day
The Reputation of Shakespeare in His Own Day
Shakespeare in the Restoration
Shakespeare Reformed
In Praise of Shakespeare
The Bard before Bardolatry	p. 190
The Editions of Rowe and Pope
Theobald versus Pope-and Vice Versa
Johnson, Garrick, and Stratford I: c 1745
Johnson, Garrick, and Stratford II: 1756
Johnson, Garrick, and Stratford III: c 1765
The Scholars' Shakespeare versus the Actors' Shakespeare
Afterwords: A Painting of the Shakespeare Monument before Its Restoration?
The Claim for the Earl of Oxford	p. 219
Of Pen Names and the Cob of Avon
Oxford as a Patron of Players
The Lord Great Chamberlain's Men?
The Case of the Missing 9th Earl
The Other Lord Chamberlain
The Counterfeit Presentment
The Courtier
The Soldier
The Scholar
The Glass of Fashion
A Resident Dramatist in Queen Elizabeth's Court?
The Thousand-Pound Annuity
In Regard to the Case for Oxford
Closing Arguments	p. 264
Stratford in Shakespeare's Day
Shakespeare's Rarified Knowledge
Shakespeare's Classical Knowledge
Getting the Elizabethan Age Right
The Theater and Audiences of Shakespeare's Time
Getting Shakespeare Right
That New Old-Time Orthodoxy
Notes	p. 295
Bibliography	p. 310
Index	p. 321
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.